Don’t be fooled into thinking that 3 reel slot machines are a thing of the past. Yes, they hark back to many years. The first one was a manual machine invented by a guy called Charles Key in 1895. It had just 5 symbols on its reels – playing card suit symbols Hearts, Clubs, Diamonds and Spades, and the fifth was a non-playing card symbol, the Liberty Bell.
One-armed bandits, as they were known, became mega popular during the late 1980s and 90s, and when the first online casino launched, digital 3 reel slot games were the first to appear. Today, due mostly to nostalgia, the best 3 reel slot machines are revered by many online casino enthusiasts. They are categorised as retro classics or being in the retro classic mould, and on this page, we here at GamBonus are delighted to review what we consider to be the best 3 reel slots available.
Royal Coins Hold and Win by Playson
Screenshot of Royal Coins Hold and Win by Playson courtesy of Win.io Casino
We start our GamBonus review of the best 3 reel slot machines available online today with the Royal Coins Hold and Win slot by Playson. It’s very much in the classic, retro fruit machine category with its 3×3, 5-payline grid, and symbols comprising 7s, Bars, Bells, Cherries, Grapes, Lemons, Melons, Oranges, and Plums. The reason we include this slot in our best 3 reel slots review is because of its special symbols, the Bonus and Royal Bonus Coins, which trigger the Royal Bonus feature round.
There is no Scatter, but the 7s are the Wilds and they substitute for all symbols but not the Bonus or Royal Bonus coins.
Symbols and Win Values
Here are the win values for landing 3-of-a-kind of each of the following symbols:
- Cherries – 1.00
- Lemons – 4.00
- Oranges – 4.00
- Plums – 4.00
- Grapes – 16.00
- Melons – 16.00
- Bars – 20
- Bells – 30
- 7s – 50.00
All wins landed at the end of a spin are accumulated. Wins come with reasonable regularity, typical of 3 reel slot games with a medium to high volatility rating. If you’re looking to land bigger value wins, you need to activate the Bonus Features.
Royal Coins Hold and Win Bonus Features
There are 2 bonus features, a Basic Bonus round and a Royal Bonus round.
The Basic Bonus Feature
To trigger the Basic Bonus of this 3 reel slots online machine, you must land 2 Bonus Coins, 1 on reel 1 and 1 on reel 3, and the Royal Bonus Coin on reel 2. When a Bonus Coin lands on reel 1 and is followed by the Royal Bonus Coin landing on reel 2, reel 3 catches fire, and the spin duration is extended.
At the start of the Basic Bonus round, you’re awarded 3 respins. Throughout the round, only the Bonus and Royal Bonus Coins land. Each time a new symbol lands, it automatically resets the respins to 3. The round continues until no more respins are left.
The Royal Bonus Feature
When the Royal Bonus symbol lands, it will stick. It then collects all values that are showing and adds them to its own value. It also collects any Mini, Major, or Grand Jackpot tokens. At the end of the round, all values are accumulated and added to the Win total.
Royal Coins Hold and Win 2 and 3
The original version of this series of 3 reel slot machines, the Royal Coins Hold and Win slot, was launched by Playson in August 2021. Its popularity has led to two updates: Royal Coins Hold and Win 2, which launched a year later in 2022, and Royal Coins Hold and Win 3, which was launched in September 2025.
Royal Coins Hold and Win 2
When Royal Coins Hold and Win 2 was launched, it contained a new feature in the base game. This new feature is the creation of a pile of coins, which can instantly propel you into one of the bonus feature rounds. You don’t even have to land a winning combo to activate this new feature. It’s triggered totally at random.
Knowing that all the best 3 reel slots have great features in their gameplay is why Playson decided to up-the-ante to make sure Royal Coins didn’t lose any of its global popularity. It certainly worked, but that’s not the end of the story. To keep this slot in the top 10 most popular 3 reel slot machines, Playson released 3 Royal Coins Hold and Win, adding yet another new feature.
3 Royal Coins Hold and Win
Screenshot of Royal Coins Hold and Win 3 by Playson courtesy of Winz.io Casino
3 Royal Coins Hold and Win is the latest addition to the Royal Coins Hold and Win series by Playson. Launched in September 2025, it keeps all the exciting goodies from its 2 predecessor classic 3 reel slots, and introduces 3 new features via 3 special, coloured coins.
- The Twin Feature: When the Green Coin is triggered, this feature doubles the number of Royal Coins in the bonus round.
- The Multi Feature: This feature is triggered by the special Red Coin, and it adds 32x multipliers to symbols on reels 1 and 3 during each spin.
- The Expand Feature: Activated by the special Blue Coin, this feature adds an additional reel to the grid.
Watching the 3 special coloured coin collectors above the grid collect coins of the same colour adds a new bit of excitement and anticipation
GamBonus’s Concluding Thoughts on the Royal Coins Hold and Win Slot Series by Playson
All 3 of the Royal Coins Hold and Win slots by Playson are among the best 3 reel slots you can play online. Not all casinos yet offer 3 Royal Coins, as, at the time of writing this review, it’s only just been released. However, GamBonus is pleased to confirm that you can play all 3 at Winz.io Casino.
There is no doubt that watching the 3 special coloured coin collectors above the grid in 3 Royal Coins collect coins of the same colour adds a new element of excitement and anticipation, but any of the 3 are worth playing, with Mega Jackpots of 1,000x your stake up for grabs. All 3 games have an RFP of 95.64% and are characterised by high volatility.
Fire Joker by Play’n GO
Screenshot of the Fire Joker Slot by Play’n GO courtesy of Bspin Casino
This is one of the classic 3 reel slots in as much as it has most of the classic symbols you’d expect from any 3 reel one-armed bandit or fruit machine. They include Cherries, Grapes, Lemons, and Plums, plus a few other old favourites such as Bars and 7s. In addition, there are Star and X symbols, as well as the Joker, which serves as the Wild. The paytable looks like this:
As 3 reel slot online machines have a limited number of reels, they have a limited number of payline, in this instance, only 5 – the 3 horizontal rows and the 2 corner to corner diagonals. However, whereas many online slots will only pay the highest value line win if you land more than one, with Fire Joker, all winning lines are added together.
Special Features of the 3 Reel Slots Online Fire Joker Game
To make Fire Joker even more interesting from a prize money point of view, Play’n GO included a couple of special features to enhance your chances of winning and improve the prize money amounts.
The first is the Fire Joker Wheel of Multipliers.
As you can see from the screenshot above, if you land a grid full of any like symbol (9 like symbols in total), the Wheel of Multipliers will appear. Once you press continue, the Wheel will spin. Whichever segment the pointer is pointing to when the Wheel stops, that’s the multiplier by which you can multiply the winnings of each line. The value of each winning line is then added to the others to give you your overall win value.
Each time the Wheel of Multipliers materialises, it could include an 800x segment, which is the top win. Depending on how mujch you bet, you could in theory win up to 800,000 coins, which is why this is one of the classic 3 reel slots that remains a firm favourite. The second feature is the Respin of Fire.
With this feature, if you nearly land a full grid’s worth of like symbols (you need to land a minimum of 2 full reels of a like symbol), you’ll be awarded a Free Spin. You might end up with a full grid or a winning line of two. Either way, it’s another chance to land a prize.
GamBonus’s Concluding Thoughts on the Fire Joker Slot by Play’n GO
The main attraction about the best 3 reel slots is that they are so easy to play, and Fire Joker proves the point. It’s a medium variance slot, so you can expect to get a mixture of small and medium-size wins reasonably regularly, and the Wheel of Multipliers feature is perfect if your’re one of those who likes to gamble your wins to risk winning even more money. It might seem counterintuitive, though, that to win the progressive local jackpot, you have to give the Supermeter option a miss, and you opt for the maximum bet. Mega Joker’s RTP is 96,15%. Why not spin the reels of the free demo version at Bspin casino to see if it’s one you should add to your list of favourites?
Powerspin by Relax Gaming
Screenshot of the Powerspin slot by Relax Gaming courtesy of Cloudbet Casino
Powerspin by Relax Gaming is another of the best 3 reel slots that we here at GamBonus recommend you try. It’s a little quirky. All 3 reels spin and land at the same time, and each event is clearly, verbally, (and some might find, annoyingly after a while) announced. There are just 6 symbols in the base game, and the payouts for 3 of a kind are:
- 3 x Cherry – 0.60
- 3 x Lemon – 0.80
- 3 x Bell – 1.00
- 3 x No.7 – 1.20
- 3 x Diamond – 2.00
- 3 x Lightning Flashes – 3.00
If you land more than 1 winning combination, only the highest-paying combos count.
It all sounds pretty straightforward up to now, but this is one of the 3 reel slots online game machines that has a few special features tucked up its sleeve.
2 Full Reel Respins
If you land 2 reels’ worth of like symbols (it can be any of the 3 reels), you will trigger the unmatched reel respin feature. This can result in landing one or more winning combos, and if you end up with a full 3cx3 set of like icons, you’ll trigger the Bonus Wheel feature.
The Bonus Wheel Feature
You can trigger this in 1 of 2 ways. The first is by landing like symbols in all 9 positions within the grid with a single spin. The 2nd is having triggered the 2 Full Reel Respins feature and then matching all 9 positions with the respin as described in the section above.
The Jackpot Stars Feature
This 3 reel slots online machine has a special Jackpot Stars feature which is triggered at random. When it is triggered, you will see the 3 Stars. If all 3 are lit, you get the opportunity to play this 6-reel variable reel length game feature.
The small screenshot on the left shows the paytable for this feature.
The gameplay of the Jackpot Stars feature in this 3 reel slots online game machine revolves around filling each reels beneath each coloured star with Red Ball symbols. Red and Grey Balls cascade from below the grid. Fill one reel to the top with all red Balls and you’ll get the appropriate payout.
GamBonus’s Concluding Thoughts on Powerspin by Relax Gaming
The Powerspin slot by Relax Gaming is a good example of the best 3 reel slots thanks to its features, especially the Jackpot Stars feature through which you can win as much as 12,500x your stake. The RTP is pretty good too. In the base game, it is 96%, and in the Jackpot Stars feature, it rises to 96.84%.
Mega Joker by NetEnt
Screenshot of the Mega Joker by NetEnt courtesy of 7Bit Casino
If you’re a lover of retro slots, you’re likely to love Mega Joker. With its 3×3 grid and 5 fixed paylines, NetEnt created this game to look just like one of the 3 reel slot machines you would have found in your local pub 30 years ago. It even sounds like one.
When it comes to the best 3 reel slots, Mega Joker by software provider NetEnt is right up there. There are 2 reasons why this is so. One is the fact that with an RTP of 99%, it’s one of the highest RTP slots ever created. The other is the fact that it has a local progressive jackpot slot.
When you land a win in the base game, you’re faced with a decision. If you’re a risk-taker, you can chance your luck with the Supermeter. You see, Mega Joker isn’t just a one 3×3 grid slot. It’s a two-grid 3×3 game. That’s what makes it one of the classic 3 reel slots.
The Supermeter Feature
Above the grid that spins in the base game, you’ll see a second grid. When you land a win which charges the Supermeter, you can gamble your win to see if you can increase your prize money. It is a win-or-lose spin.
The more you win in the base game (you can check this out by reading the ‘WIN’ meter), the more options you have on Supermeter spins. You can see the options and the win payout amounts detailed on either side of the upper 3×3 grid.
GamBonus’s Concluding Thoughts on the Mega Joker Slot by NetEnt
The GamBonus team had fun with the Supermeter aspect, but we suggest you play around with the free demo version of this 3 reel slots online game machine, which you can play at 7Bit casino, before trying it for real. One tip we offer is not to use the Supermeter option unless you’ve got at least 60 win points. If you do, the odds are against you. The maximum win is 2,000 coins.
As far as winning the local progressive jackpot is concerned, it is awarded randomly on any winning combination.
Odin Infinity Reels by Reel Play
Screenshot of Odins Infinity Reels by Reel Play courtesy of 7Bit Casino
We close this review with a quick mention of Odins Infinity Reels by Reel Play. Strictly speaking, this isn’t a simple 3 reel slots online machine, but we thought we would include it as it starts out that way. But knowing how much players love Megaways games, we thought we would be a little cheeky and include it in this short round-up of the best 3 reel slots.
Most Megaways games have 117,649 ways to win, but with the potential of expanding the number of reels to 12 or more, the number of ways to win with Odins Infinity Reels is classed as unlimited. This is a high volatility game with an RTP of 96.18%. If you’d like to find out more, why not try the free demo version available at 7Bit Casino?
